Ripalda’s Catecismo is the most famous one that has ever been published. According to Backer-Sommervogel, 25 editions are known of the Eighteenth Century and 26 of the Nineteenth Century. Sanchez cites 471 down to 1900 and I know of several others. Father Andrade, in the Noticias de Mexico of Francisco Sedano, stated that in addition to numerous editions in Spanish, Ripalda’s Catecismo had been translated into forty-five different languages, and he omitted two that are known today. The book was translated into Zapoteca by Francisco Pacheco y Silva and printed in Mexico in 1687; again in Puebla in 1689, and in Mexico in 1776. It was also translated into Mixteca, of which editions appeared in Puebla in 1719 and 1775. The first edition in Mexican [i.e., Nahuatl], arranged by Paredes, was published in Mexico in 1758. So far as known, the first Spanish edition printed in Mexico was that by Maria de Rivera in 1749. In 1770 it also appeared with a license of 1768 to Joseph de Xauregui. On July 16, 1783, Pedro de la Rosa, a Puebla printer, obtained an exclusive license from the Viceroy to print this Catecismo and some other spiritual works. The Catecismo appeared in 1784 with the title Catecismo y exposicion breve de la Doctrina Cristiana. Rosa kept putting out new editions, of which I have records of one in 1794, others in 1806, 1808, and one as late as 1828. The book was frequently reprinted thereafter in Puebla by Rosa, and in Mexico City by other printers; Murguia, for instance, reprinted it in 1859 and 1864.

Jesuit Father Gerónimo de Ripalda (1536?-1618), a native of Spain, is best remembered for this catechism, which was reprinted innumerable times and translated into several languages such as this one in Nahuatl. The catechism was authorized by the Mexican Provincial Council of 1585 as the official version to be used throughout the Archdiocese and Dioceses of Mexico. Several translations were made, but this edition is considered to be the definitive one in the Nahuatl language (see Beristain). The work also contains questions and answers about doctrine by Bartolomé Castaño (see herein). Translator Ignacio de Paredes (1703-1770) was a renowned Jesuit translator and authority on the Nahuatl language. He is best known for his important Promptuario manual mexicano (1759), instructing priests and missionaries how to teach Indians in their native language of Nahuatl (see Paredes herein). The work includes an exhortation to Native Americans to read and learn this catechism.

Ripalda’s Catechismo was one of the basic three “C’s” (Cartilla, Catechism, and Cato) used by bilingual teachers to teach children in New Spain. Many children, both Native and non-Native, were exposed only to reciting Ripalda’s Catechism because their parents removed them from school before they learned to write. See James Alan Marten, Children in Colonial America (New York University Press, 2007).